


Will's Arc In Season 3

by Bemused_Writer



Series: Bemused's Meta, Theories, and Thoughts [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Asexuality Spectrum, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 07:18:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19662478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bemused_Writer/pseuds/Bemused_Writer
Summary: An analysis of Will's arc in season 3 in relation to his friends and whether he is portrayed as ace on the show.





	Will's Arc In Season 3

**Author's Note:**

> So, I really enjoyed the third season and I found Will's arc very interesting. I wrote this on Tumblr and figured I'd crosspost it here for anyone who is interested. ^^

Season 3 of _Stranger Things_ was really well done in my opinion but one element I found particularly interesting was that we’re seeing our main characters discover relationships and their own sexualities. The show portrays this in a pretty realistic way in my opinion; this is definitely the age where relationships become a _very_ prominent theme in school. 

On the show we see everyone is starting to pair up but there was one interesting exception and that is Will. In my opinion, this isn’t because Will isn’t learning about his sexuality; it’s just that it’s not the same as his friends, which is what I want to take a look at here because I think it was handled really well and quite realistically for the era.

A recurring theme for Will at the beginning of this season is he really just wants to play D&D and not focus on all this relationship business. You can tell he’s having a hard time understanding _why_ this has suddenly taken over his entire social life. It’s evident his friends, Lucas and Mike in particular, are annoyed by his reticence on the matter. They are both overwhelmingly concerned with girls and their relationship with two in particular and that’s understandable but while they focus on that Will kind of, well, gets left in the background.

Which is the second recurring theme for Will this season: he’s often left alone.

The above scene is the conclusion of him trying to get his friends to play D&D with him. The entire time he’s setting up for D&D his friends are talking about romance. He’s not paying them much mind except to point out certain facts, which Eleven overhears.

Will is often the voice of reason when it comes to this. The girls broke up with them; it’s time to move on. 

Of course, Will also wants things to go back to how they were before where his friends actually wanted to hang out and play a game with him and they weren’t so obsessed with pursuing something he’s not interested in. So, he’s making an excellent point and respecting Eleven and Max’s independence but he also just wants a return to the norm. 

All of this is making it pretty clear Will isn’t on the same page as his friends when it comes to relationships whatsoever. I think a particularly poignant scene regarding this was in the very first episode of the season.

Honestly, I think this was a very telling scene especially in retrospect and his feelings on the matter are only reinforced throughout the season. It’s important to note he didn’t say this with disgust or sadness; he’s not longing to change how things are. It’s just a statement of fact and Joyce lets it go (because she’s very supportive and an awesome person in general but I digress). He simply knows it isn’t for him.

It would be easy to say something like “he’s a late bloomer” or he “hasn’t found the right person yet” but I don’t think that’s what we’re seeing. I think Will _is_ telling us about his sexuality and it’s simply that he’s not interested. In other words, my hypothesis is that Will is on the asexual spectrum and quite likely aromantic as well. 

His friends have certainly noticed he’s different and when Mike, his best friend, finally confronts him about how he hasn’t been supporting their endeavors this is how it goes:

  


Will doesn’t say anything to defend himself. What’s there to say? Mike is correct that Will doesn’t like women romantically or sexually but it’s a callout, not a simple observation. 

Will understandably looks betrayed; I don’t think he expected Mike to use this against him. Maybe Will told him something in confidence but I think it’s more likely that Mike is pointing something out that Will knows to be true but he’s saying it like it’s a flaw. Will _knows_ he doesn’t fit in. He doesn’t need the reminder and it hurts to have it pushed to the forefront of the conversation so pointedly.

Mike asks him if he really thought things would stay the same way forever and Will says “Yeah, I guess I did.” In other words, he thought his friends would value their friendship the same way he does. He prioritizes his friendships over everything because that _is_ the ultimate relationship for him. Only Mike is making it plain he doesn’t feel the same.

I think all of this is very relatable to an ace experience (especially an aromantic one): a sense of isolation as all your friends start chasing after romantic relationships and a certain difficulty accepting you don’t feel the same. Mike was fairly harsh in his wording and I really felt for Will here; he wasn’t prepared for that. 

The scene that follows where he tears apart his pictures of his friends, the most important people in his life outside of his family, was hard to watch.

He’s ashamed of how he feels, of how much their friendship means to him. He’s trying to distance himself because he believes he’ll never have that idyllic friendship ever again and that he never should have cared so much to begin with. 

The really difficult thing is that this was an era where the term “asexual” didn’t even exist to describe his feelings. Will knows he’s different but he doesn’t even have a word to help explain why that is. He only knows it’s true and that hurts.

From this point onwards we don’t see Will interacting with his friends in the same way. There is a constant distance between them even as Mike and Lucas try to fix the damage. It’s a bit late though seeing as the Upside Down is messing with the town once again and more important issues take center stage.

The only relationship that is unweathered this season for Will is with his mother, Joyce. He doesn’t really interact with Jonathan (probably because, once again, he can’t relate) and he’s on the fringe with his friends. Joyce is quietly supportive though and I thought they had a sweet reunion:

No matter what happens next season I feel certain Joyce will ultimately be supportive of Will’s choices.

We see one last interaction with him and Mike as well though. Their relationship feels changed but I think Will has forgiven him. There’s a certain amount of sadness present though (for several reasons but I do think that Will has accepted they are different in a fundamental way too):

Will donates his D&D supplies, the culmination of all his attempts earlier this season. Personally, I found this terribly sad but also completely understandable. It symbolically represents his acceptance that things aren’t the same anymore. What they once had is gone and he’s not going to try to recreate that with different people. He knows who his friends are and he treasures them. 

At the same time, I think it represents a new beginning. He’s not giving up on them being friends and he’s not abandoning how much he values that exactly. He’s simply changing the terms. They’ll hang out when he visits. It will be more infrequent but they’ll still share time together. He’s not going to push for it in the same way he used to. Possibly because it hurts less that way but possibly because he’s trying to respect their differences. In other words, it’s similar to Mike realizing he can’t hog all of Eleven’s attention no matter how much he values their relationship.

Ultimately, however, I think Will is still trying to maintain some distance from how much he cared before and that hurts to witness. I don’t think we’ve seen Will fully accept himself for who he is just yet and I don’t think their friendship has been completely healed.

It’s not as complete a resolution as I would have liked to see but I’m also fairly certain we’ll be getting a season 4, so maybe we’ll see Will continue to explore his feelings on the matter. Will is having a hard time of things and I really want to see him get some proper time with his friends.

I realize that this is making the asexual experience sound kind of bleak but I think that in the 80s it would have been for a lot of people (and sometimes it still is in the present but I daresay it’s getting better). He’s young and he doesn’t have any resources explaining why he feels so different but ultimately his friends _are_ trying to accept him, his mom is always there to support him, and I really think Will is going to be okay. I just want to see more resolution for him because he deserves it and he deserves to be happy. 

I want to say that I think this was well handled though especially if they were trying to write an asexual character (and I feel relatively safe in that assumption for now but if I’m wrong I’m cool with that too–there are other ways of reading it). It may not be a “perfect” happy ending or a joyous presentation but it does feel real. Sometimes, being who you are _is_ hard and it’s not an easy thing to accept, especially when you have the whole of society being pretty oblivious to the whole thing. 

I’m hopeful we’ll see this explored a little more in future seasons, especially since we have other characters (notably Robin) who are breaking the mold.


End file.
